If on a Winter's Night a Streamer
by silentmusic16
Summary: On a blustery winter evening, Hanamaru is invited out by Yoshiko to help with one of her 'Yohane' streams.


**I wrote the original draft of this about a year ago, and no matter how much I tried to edit or complete it I struggled the whole time. I figured a full re-write was the only way to fix it, and here we are! While I tried to stay in-character for both girls, I will admit that my understanding of these cuties was probably somewhat influenced by mezashi's wonderful Yohamaru works.**

 **The title is taken from Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.**

 **Enjoy~**

* * *

Even while the wind blew in chilly gusts and frigid blasts just outside her windows, Hanamaru couldn't have felt more comfortable if she tried. Her legs stretched out long and straight beneath the _kotatsu_ and she moved her stockinged feet absentmindedly in small circles. She leaned slightly forward over the table as she read a novel - an old favorite of hers, stained yellow with age and lovingly dogeared - while, beside her, a cup of _genmaicha_ green tea sat undisturbed and steaming. Through the aged wooden window frames and timeworn walls of Hanamaru's home passed streams of cold air that seemed to soak into the _tatami_ covering the floor; this only made being underneath the heated _kotatsu_ and its thick blanket covering all the more serene to the young idol, who sighed contentedly while flipping through her book. Reading beneath a _kotatsu_ on a cold day was something of a tradition for Hanamaru, a tradition she looked forward to on those rare extra-wintry days in the seaside town of Uchiura.

Hanamaru grinned when she flipped to a new page, and not only because she was reaching a part in the novel she enjoyed. There was just something great about the feeling of paper beneath her fingers, the dry scratchiness as familiar to her as her very own skin. That wasn't even mentioning the welcoming, musty scent of the old book, reminiscent of so much of Hanamaru's home; this was where countless generations of her family lived while they ran the local shrine and in its dark corners and worn furniture was the very spirit of family and life the girl was happily used to.

Hanamaru was in the middle of a sentence when her phone vibrated on the table. The loud rumbling of the phone on the hard top of the _kotatsu_ scared the girl to death. "Ah!" she squeaked out. She laid her book down with shaky hands and, clutching a hand to her quickly beating heart, Hanamaru opened her dinged-up flip-phone to see that she had a new text message from Yoshiko.

 _"Zuramaru!"_ the text read. _"How would you like to help a fallen angel reach the land of the frost giants,_ **Jotunheim** _?"_

 _ **Jotunheim**_? _Frost giants?_ Hanamaru raised an eyebrow. As usual, she wasn't entirely sure _what_ Yoshiko meant half the time. Or, in character, wasn't this Yohane?

Still, she began to type. Technology was not Hanamaru's forte - her inexperienced thumbs cautiously hovered over each character as she thought her response through and it was something of a slow, pained effort to complete even a few simple sentences. ' _Wouldn't you rather stay in on a day like this? You could come to my house if you'd like_.' she sent. Hanamaru placed her phone back down onto the _kotatsu_ and lifted her book once again. She probably had a few more minutes to read while Yoshiko made a decision.

 _BZZZ!_ Or so she thought. After what felt like a fraction of a second she received a new text. Hanamaru sighed; she had only just finished her slow, pained trial at typing! Where was her break? Yoshiko's text, as usual, seemed as though it came straight out of a light novel. _'What is your home in comparison to_ **Jotunheim** , _the icy world of the frost giants?! Meet me at the park and I'll show it to you.'_

Biting her lip in thought, Hanamaru considered her options. She was comfortable. She was _really_ comfortable sitting underneath her heated table with a book in hand - but there was the slightest bit of her that was interested in what Yoshiko was going to do. And, more pressingly, a larger part of her felt responsible to watch over the other girl just in case she did something rash in a fit of fallen angel frenzy. It _was_ rather cold out.

Hanamaru took her time gathering her winter gear. After changing her leggings for sweatpants and her long-sleeved shirt for a puffy sweater she donned her winter coat - the same pastel yellow as her favorite cardigan - and then her hat, scarf, and gloves, followed by a pair of bulky snow boots she'd received as a gift the year before. She hoped to be as warm as she could be out there in the cold. Before she left Hanamaru placed her novel neatly on the _kotatsu's_ top, where it waited patiently for her return. Shiny and black, a familiar feather held her place as a bookmark.

When she exited her home she was instantly transported to the Arctic - or so it felt. Even though she knew the temperature before she left, Hanamaru was still shocked as the frigid wind rushed up against her bundled body. Her cheeks burned red and raw in an instant. She shivered in place, and it took her more than a few beats before she gained the strength to leave the stone steps of her home to head to the park. The early dusk sky was clear, the sun sitting low and golden on the path of its celestial chariot, but this did nothing to warm the girl even a little bit. If there was anything good to be said of such a day, it was in the scent of the air. Hanamaru breathed deeply, inhaling the crisp, fresh, wonderful smell of a pure winter day. It was a scent evocative of a coming snowstorm, or the clear blue day just after one; evocative of the sound of crunching snow under foot and the drip of slowly melting icicles tap tap tapping onto cement. Living in a seaside town didn't allow for many snowstorms even in the midst of winter, but Hanamaru had always loved this crispness whenever she could get it.

The park where she was to meet Yoshiko was somewhere between their two homes, though closer to Hanamaru's, and a place she remembered from those early kindergarten days when she had first met the 'fallen angel'. The park was filled with the usual attractions: slides and swings and seesaws galore. It didn't take long to discover whether or not Yoshiko was there yet - the girl stood confidently, chest puffed out, at the top of the jungle gym. She wore a large, dark gray jacket and a frilly black skirt, underneath which she wore striped stockings and black boots. The golden sun behind her gave the girl an almost divine tinge, an ironic kind of medieval disc-as-a-halo that made the fallen angel look anything _but_ fallen. She pointed steadily, demandingly, to Hanamaru as the girl approached the jungle gym.

"Zuramaru! You've arrived just in time." the girl yelled from her place above the park. Her voice boomed in the crisp air, but thankfully there was no one else in the place besides the two idols.

"I hope you weren't waiting long." she answered truthfully.

"Nonsense. I was just setting up my live stream."

"Live...stream? Is this part of that 'internet' thingi?"

Yoshiko held up her internet-connected video camera without answering, and the bright red led next to the convex lens seemed to glare at Hanamaru from above. "Smile for my little demons, Zuramaru!"

Hanamaru, flustered at the sudden attention, nervously shook her hands before her face. "H-hello!"

Turning the camera's gleaming eye back on herself, Yoshiko posed dramatically and spoke to her fans. "Are you ready to see **Jotunheim** , my little demons?" She twirled in place, followed it up by her signature hand movement, and readied herself for a jump. Yohane hopped down from the jungle gym onto the remains of a recent snowstorm and stumbled a bit, reaching out to grab onto one of the cold metal bars for support, though she tried playing it off cool with the camera still trained on her. "Zuramaru, follow me! We shall use the powers of darkness to lead us towards the land of the frost giants!"

"Do you know where we're headed?" Hanamaru asked. The other girl raised an eyebrow and cackled.

"Of course! One of my little demons shared a rumor with me about a real frost giant deep in the woods of Uchiura. We've gotta see it!"

Yoshiko had hardly finished speaking before she marched out of the playground and into an opening between a large group of trees. Hanamaru's lips lifted in a smile, and her eyes creased just a bit in concern, but she followed Yoshiko's footsteps into the woods surrounding the park anyway. She supposed she was going to **Jotunheim** , wherever that was. A few feet ahead Yoshiko babbled some incoherent magical nonsense to her audience. The shorter girl ran to catch up and then fell into step with her tall friend. There was very little space between them as they walked - be it a natural sense to share heat or just the comfort they had with one another, the girls huddled close together. Shoulder brushed against shoulder, hand bumped into hand, and Hanamaru inaudibly gulped. Tentatively, slowly, she reached down to grasp at Yoshiko's hand, and said nothing while her fingers rested lightly on the back of Yoshiko's. She waited patiently for the girl to accept; Yoshiko never turned down a handhold or an embrace, not unless they were around others. She was a rather shy girl at heart, her overactive streaming personality notwithstanding. But they were alone then, right?

"Z-zuramaru!" the girl whisper-yelled above the camera. "W-we're not a-l-o-n-e right now. A-after the show, alright?"

Hanamaru nodded in understanding, though it still hurt just a bit to pull her hand away - future promises or not. While Yoshiko went on and on chatting to her 'little demons', the shorter girl began to take in the sights around them: the near-bare evergreen pines stripped of bark by the sea-wind coming off of the bay; the sheets of undisturbed snow as they ventured further into the woods; the ever-shrinking shapes of the playground attractions behind them. She was so absorbed in all of this that, for the second time that day, Yoshiko managed to scare the unsuspecting girl.

This time, however, it was from Yoshiko grasping her wool-gloved hand tightly underneath the eye of the camera. All that Yoshiko's audience could see was the blooming of a light blush on the streamer's face. She could always say it was just from the cold, if she was asked.

* * *

"Are we almost there?" Hanamaru asked, crossing her arms for warmth and blowing out a cloud of breath. The sun had set some time before, and now both girls stood in the midst of the forest in something of a blue twilight where the waves of nighttime ultramarine were washing out the last remnants of the sun. They'd walked farther into the local woods than Hanamaru had ever been before, and as she looked to Yoshiko she realized that, perhaps, it was further than _she'd_ gone before too. The other girl glanced around suspiciously, eyeing the trees around them or reacting to each and every sound, like the scurrying of an animal or a pile of snow falling from a branch. Any time they came to a fork in the makeshift forest path Yoshiko would stand still for moments at a time and glare at her phone in confusion, almost like she _didn't_ know where they were going.

"We're, uh...Yes! Certainly! I can feel the ley lines of the dark angels' magic right below us!" she flicker her fingers and posed for the camera still clutched in her hand. "We're very nearly at the entrance of **Jotunheim** \- a large, icy lake!"

"I don't think there's a...lake! It's a lake! How'd you know, Yoshiko?" They emerged from the clumped group of snowcapped trees into a large clearing with a frozen lake, just as Yoshiko had predicted. The temperature seemed to fall as they walked out towards the edge of the ice-covered water, where the trees couldn't protect the girls from the wind. Hanamaru shivered involuntarily and beside her she could swear she heard Yoshiko's teeth clacking together. On the very far end of the lake Hanamaru could just make out the appearance of a large snow-mound, piled high in two spots with an oddly shaped ball in the center. Connected to both higher spots were long, disjointed piles stretching out into wide, five-star points. From her place across the water Hanamaru thought the pile could, in the right light, with the right angle of the head, look somewhat look like a large person. Kind of.

"I told you, I read the very ley lines themselves! With this _GPS_ \- the Goetia Phantom Simulacrum!" she paused. "And it's _Yohane_! Yo-Ha-Ne!"

"GeePiiEss? Isn't that that space satellite map thing? You have that on your _phone_?!" Hanamaru gasped. "It's the future!"

" _Anyway_." Yoshiko turned and nearly shoved the camera into Hanamaru's hands. "Watch, my little demons, as I cross this treacherous barren wasteland into the land of the frost giants!"

"You're gonna walk on the lake, Yoshiko? "

"Yohane!"

"I don't think that's a very good idea."

"I'm _sure_ it's fine." Yoshiko answered nonchalantly. She flipped her hand in the air with a shrug. "I mean, look how cold it is out here!" The girl reached down to grasp at a small, fallen tree branch in the snow and, with a form that was less than stellar, threw the branch onto the ice. It skidded to a stop not too far onto the surface of the ice-covered lake. "And see? That ice is solid."

Hanamaru wasn't convinced, but Yoshiko had already began her walk towards the lake. There was hardly any snow where the frozen water met the shore and from that point on the internet star slowly inched out onto the lake's frozen top. Her feet nearly slipped out from under her and she let out a loud squeak, but without too much trouble she managed to steady herself again. She smirked confidently.

"See, there's nothing to worry about! If anything happens," she moved a bit further out onto the lake top, now nearly running. "My wings will lift me-eeeaahh!"

A loud crack exploded in the night and the frosted glass of the lake fractured into puzzle pieces and tectonic plates all in an instant. Yoshiko's eyes seemed to pop out of her head. She stuck a hand out to catch herself as she fell, but could hardly even catch her _breath_ before scrambling to the edge of the lake, sloshing water and mud and ice behind her all the while. Hanamaru dropped the camera onto the snow and ran to the shore. She stuck a hand out towards Yoshiko, who had _just_ made it to the shoreline before the ice gave way beneath her completely. She fell onto her bottom in the freezing shallows and took the soft, gloved hand held out to her the second she saw it, though by that point it didn't matter; she was soaked through all up and down her legs, behind, and back. Hanamaru pulled the girl up and out of the water - she fell forward onto Hanamaru's chest, as warm and soft and welcoming as she remembered.

"Are you alright?" the shorter girl asked in concern.

"The Ice giants c-c-c-counterattacked before I could even venture into **J-j-jotunheim**! There must be a traitor amongst my - ow!"

Hanamaru lightly, but firmly, chopped the girl on the head with an open fist. "I think it's time to leave, Yoshiko."

"B-b-but I want to see the ice g-g-giaaaahhhcchhoo!" Yoshiko wiped her nose on her sleeve. Defeated, she shook her head slowly. "L-let's go."

After they retrieved the fallen camera ("I'm going to have to _totally_ make a new video"), the girls once more followed the path in the woods. The next half hour was filled with Yoshiko's various moans, groans, and complaints while they slowly made their way back through the trees. Every few steps, Yohane would lose her footing or cringe when her wet boots - and now, wet toes - froze even more. She shivered almost violently whenever the wind blew even the smallest breeze against her. Hanamaru took a deep breath; she was certainly cold, but at least she wasn't wet too.

Hanamaru stopped walking for a moment. Yoshiko was so wrapped up in her own suffering that it took her a second to notice, and when she did she moaned irritably "Zuramaru! Why'd you stop?"

"Got it." Hanamaru said to herself, and then fully unbuttoned her coat. She didn't say anything as she slipped it off of her shoulders and handed it to Yoshiko, but she smiled warmly.

Yoshiko reached out for it, but then drew her hands back. Her fingers twitched in betrayal of just how much she wanted the coat. "Won't you be cold?"

Hanamaru smiled affectionately once again, a ray of sunshine there in the midst of the snow-white night. "That's alright, we're almost back anyway. You're all cold _and_ you're all wet. You're gonna get sick!"

"Ah, but I've a-already been struck by the most deadly of all diseases: a curse! A curse I cannot break unless - "

One firm but gentle chop to the head later and Yoshiko accepted the coat without another word. She slipped it on and wrapped it tightly around her body. Although the sleeves were a bit short, she felt warmer almost instantly once the wool coat encased her. Still, if there was something even better than the coat's material it was the fact that it radiated Hanamaru's very own body heat, like a tiny little sun wrapped around Yoshiko's body. Hanamaru stifled an appreciatory giggle when she noticed bold and brash _Yohane_ doing her best to hold back a moan of pleasure with a face nearly as red as Riko's hair.

"Wait, Zuramaru - you said that we'd be back soon, but where is it that we're going? I don't know the bus schedule off the top of my head, and, uh..." her face grew red. "I have to give you back your coat, and - "

"We'll go to my house." she turned and gave Yoshiko a heart-stopping grin, until a puzzled expression replaced it. "That's not a problem, is it?"

Yoshiko coughed into her hand. "O-oh, ah, no. Not for me! Just be careful; the agents of the Great Overseer may be following us!" Another cough, and then Yoshiko posed as she would for an audience of her little demons. The way she shivered took away some of the 'cool' from the performance, but Hanamaru found it charming nonetheless. "Why don't we, uh...why don't we huddle together? T-that way, my darkness might shield your heavenly light from our adversaries, o-of course."

Hanamaru looked to Yoshiko knowingly, all but smirking. "Of course." She took a few steps closer to the girl, much closer, and grabbed her hand without any trepidation this time around. She pushed up against Yoshiko, blushing red all the while, and felt her chest press softly into the taller girl's arm. "We should get going." she said, averting her eyes from Yoshiko's face unsuccessfully; she couldn't help but flicker there every few seconds. "It's getting cold out here, right?"

Yoshiko audibly gulped. "I-it must be my aura, b-born in the icy lake of Cocytus!"

"I'm sure it is."

* * *

"First, let's get you out of those wet clothes."

Hanamaru was all business when they reached her home, hardly seeming to notice how Yoshiko's blood rose to her cheeks at the phrase. The trek back from the woods went much more swiftly when they huddled for warmth - among other, more romantic reasons - but now that they arrived at her home the bookworm took full control of the situation. They passed through the foyer and took of their coats and boots and winter gear. The clothing left small puddles on the stone entrance and Hanamaru called out an apology to her parents as she all but dragged Yoshiko to her room at the back of the house.

"S-strip." Hanamaru ordered, her back turned to Yoshiko and her face beet red, after she closed the door to her room. "You're gonna freeze in those clothes."

"W-what do I change into?! You can't j-just say something like that and not have something for me to change _into_!"

"Ah, you're right!" Hanamaru raced around the room, pulling things from this drawer and that one. Her room had a tatami floor like the rest of the major rooms in the house, and a single window lit up by what little light leaked in from the near-moonless night. There was an old dresser in one corner beside an equally timeworn wooden desk, and across from this a more modern bed against the wall. Armies of books were placed uniformly in a tall bookshelf by the door but there were piles and piles of them stacked haphazardly around the room as well. Yoshiko stood in the midst of this makeshift library while Hanamaru searched for clothing.

A few minutes passed before Hanamaru presented a mismatched pair of green sweatpants and a moth-eaten navy sweatshirt, as well as a pair of socks. "I figured everything else of yours was still dry."

"Right. O-of course! The burning fire of my fallen angel soul has already dried the icy water in my bones!"

"Then why's your skin still cold?" Hanamaru asked seriously, holding the back of her hand to Yoshiko's forehead. They were closer now than they'd been almost the entire night; chest to chest, with Hanamaru's innocent, concerned stare reaching a part of Yoshiko she didn't know existed. "You really should get take a shower and get changed soon." She backed away quickly, as if just realizing her actions, and grinned in embarrassment. "I'll wait in the living room."

Standing in the door-frame, Hanamaru took one last look at Yoshiko before leaving the girl to undress in peace. To see the 'fallen angel' clenching her heart and blushing something fierce filled her with the kind of giddy confidence she only felt after an idol concert, when she could look over the crowd to see just how many people were touched by her - _their_ music. A sense of serenity overcame her, a warming comfort filling whatever bits of her were still cold from the earlier trip, and there was this odd sensation of being at once both grounded and lightheaded. She really, really cared for Yoshiko and to see the girl so deeply affected by her actions was a reward in and of itself. If all the countless novels she had read taught her anything, she thought she might even love Yoshiko. Wouldn't that be something?

Hanamaru went to sit under the _kotatsu_ when she reached the living room, but the ice-cold cup of tea left beside her book told her to do otherwise. She took the cup to the kitchen with her and put in the sink before pulling two fresh cups from the cabinet, putting the kettle on a burner, and preparing tea for Yoshiko and herself. While she waited for the water to begin to boil Hanamaru hummed softly to no one in particular. By some measure of coincidence the water in the kettle reached a boil just as she watched Yoshiko nervously enter the living room. The taller girl looked around the cozy room; her eyes grew wide when she spotted the feather peaking out of Hanamaru's book. The shirt and pants Hanamaru gave her were a bit closer to Yoshiko in size than she first assumed they'd be; the arm and leg length weren't too short for her taller friend. She thought that Yoshiko looked cute in such a normal get-up, with her indigo hair now free of its usual bun slightly wet and hanging down past her shoulders. Sure, Yoshiko had a very _unique_ style that was appealing in its own right, but the casual and comfortable clothing the girl wore now definitely had a charm to it. Something domestic and real, nothing close to the intricate dresses and costumes Yohane liked to wear.

"I'll be in there in a second, Yoshiko. You should sit underneath the _kotatsu_ and get warm."

True to her word Hanamaru was back in the living room in no time, carrying with her two steaming cups of _genmaicha._ She handed one to Yoshiko and sat down across from the girl, taking the same place she'd sat earlier in the day. "Feeling warmer?"

"Sure am!" the 'fallen angel' answered. "The black fires of Hades are filling me with strength!"

"What are you going to tell your little demons about this whole ice-giant thing?" Hanamaru asked. Her finger was already placed in the slit of her book where the feather held her place.

"Hmm." she placed her hand on her chin. "Maybe I can frame it like I was attacked by the guards of **Jotunheim**! I'm sure that my fans will go wild!"

"I'm not so sure it's a good idea to lie about being attacked." Hanamaru said in a slightly reprimanding tone.

"But think of all the hits I might get!"

For the third time that day, Hanamaru reached over and chopped the girl on the head. "It's probably not the best thing to say."

"...I guess you're right." she grumbled. "But I totally can't admit to everyone that I just fell in some water. I don't have anything to give my fans - the whole day is a waste!"

"Your day with me was a waste?" Hanamaru looked down at her book hoping to avoid Yoshiko's eyes. Something hurt inside her, in the same place where just earlier she felt an elation she'd never felt before.

"A-ah, no!" Yoshiko leaned over the top of the _kotatsu_ and almost knocked over both cups of tea. They clattered loudly against the wooden top of the table. "Hana, you know that that's not what I meant. Come on, smile!"

"..." She didn't answer at first, and it was only the slight upward tilt of her head that told Yoshiko she was going to speak. "...Prove it."

"Eh?"

"Can you prove it?" Hanamaru looked upwards then, her cheeks full of roses and her eyes, pleading, full of stars. Beneath the _kotatsu_ she gently kicked her feet against Yoshiko's knees. The other girl's eyes grew wide like open shells.

"H-how do you want me to do that? I-I can make a blood seal here that tests my honesty and -." she gulped. "That's not what you mean, is it?"

Hanamaru shook her head, and her chestnut hair fanned out around her for a moment as light as a feather. She watched Yoshiko inch closer unconsciously, as if drawn to her, and it was when she bit her lip that Yoshiko finally went in for the kiss. It was a chaste kiss, still-cold lips on warmer ones, lips dry from the heat of the shower meeting a pair wet with tea, pressing hard enough to take both their breaths away but too soft, too inexperienced and nervous and giddy for anything more. They separated all too quickly when, as loud as a gunshot in the then-silent home, the sound of Hanamaru's parents' door opening scared both girls out of their wits. Hanamaru slapped the sides of her face with her hands and Yoshiko all but slammed her head on the hard top of the _kotatsu_ in her effort to make it look like she was doing anything _besides_ kissing her more-than-a-friend.

A few silent, tense moments passed before it was apparent that the sound was actually the door _closing_. Hanamaru reached over and patted Yoshiko on the head a few times affectionately. The other girl groaned, but raised herself from the tabletop and rubbed the red spot on her forehead, "T-that was close." she gulped. "The agents of the council of Elysium almost found us!"

"Maybe we shouldn't do that out here..."

" _Now_ you say that, Zuramaru!?"

The other girl merely giggled. "Why don't you stay here for the night? It's gettin' late."

"Sure!" Yoshiko agreed, almost a little too quickly. "Who knows what creatures of the night might be waiting to ambush a little demon of mine like you? No, I should be here to...to protect you. Yeah, that's it."

"I'm glad." Hanamaru nodded, and the smallest of sly smiles grew her face. "That means you'll have to stay close tonight."

Halfway through a sip of tea, Yoshiko nearly choked. Hanamaru giggled and opened up her book once more. Reading under the _kotatsu_ on chilly winter days was already a tradition - she would be happy, glowingly happy, if Yoshiko could become part of that tradition too.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Reviews, criticisms, and responses are all welcome!**


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